* Text Features
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Boston Red Sox Monday, April 12, 2021 * The Boston Globe J.D. Martinez leads six-homer barrage as Red Sox finish off Baltimore sweep Julian McWilliams BALTIMORE — In the top of the eighth inning Sunday, what was once a 10-1 lead shrunk to 10-7, J.D. Martinez stepped into his usual comfort zone. He had homered twice in the contest already, in the third and in the sixth, both to the opposite field. But on this pitch, a 0-2 changeup left middle-in by Baltimore Orioles reliever Tyler Wells, Martinez saw an opportunity to really do damage. His approach remains up the middle to right field, but this time he leaned into the former, belting a Wells changeup practically right where he pitched it for a third home run. “He’s locked in,” manager Alex Cora said afterward. “You can tell, walking around and talking to him. He is a guy I saw in ’18 and ’19. He has an idea of what he wants to do. He doesn’t deviate from his process.” That, and Rafael Devers’s two-run jack two batters later — his second of the day and fourth of this series — sealed the convincing 14-9 win. It completed the Sox’ second straight sweep and sixth straight win. Sunday further affirmed an already-hot Red Sox offense, doubling its production to 12 home runs in its last six games, scoring 53 runs in that span. Yet at the fulcrum of it all is Martinez, who finished the day 4 for 6 and is batting .472 to start the year with five homers. His 12 extra-base hits are the most by any player in his first eight games of the season in American League history. Sunday’s showing came after Martinez was forced to the COVID-19 Related Injured List on Saturday. Martinez came down with a common cold and had to go through the league protocols and testing in order to ensure he was negative for COVID-19. As a result, the red-hot Martinez was confined to his hotel room before he was reactivated early Sunday afternoon. “It’s part of it,” Martinez said. “Everyone is trying to take precautions and everything. But at the same time, it’s a little frustrating.” Alex Verdugo tagged in on the action, too, squaring up his first homer of the season, a three-run blast, in the top of the third inning off Baltimore starter Jorge López. Martinez was right behind him, making it back-to-back blasts. At the end of it, López had run into a buzzsaw, yielding seven runs in just four innings. “I mean that’s part of who we are,” Cora said. “We put some good swings on the ball throughout this series. We hit the ball in the air. We got into a groove offensively.” The Red Sox got six innings from starter Nick Pivetta, who allowed four runs on seven hits while striking out seven, and has won all four of his Red Sox starts dating back to last season. But, again, the collective offense was the key to Sunday’s win. “When they come up there and start putting a couple runs across the board, you get to relax a little bit more, kind of ease into it,” Pivetta said. Martinez can’t remember a run like his most recent one. Perhaps spring training in 2014, when he was still a member of the Detroit Tigers, he said, but he doesn’t try and think about it. His approach, as it’s always been, is to remain technical and precise in the moment in front of him. “I think the moment you’re aware of it, you’re no longer in it,” Martinez said. “So I try to not be aware of it and just try to focus on the small tasks and focus on my gameplan off certain pitchers and what I’m trying to do. That’s how I kind of control the whole thing.” Martinez has an extra-base hit in nine straight games (dating to last season’s finale), tying a Red Sox record. The player the Sox are seeing is one that Cora, and Martinez himself, knew would show up this season. “I know he talked about last year and how he’s on a mission to prove people wrong, but it was only 60 games,” Cora said. “He was one month away from getting his numbers right. I’m glad that he’s swinging the bat the way he is.” Nick Pivetta, backed by big offense, did what he needed to against Baltimore Julian McWilliams BALTIMORE — Nick Pivetta has a way of getting out of trouble. He drew a solid chunk of hard contact in his outing against the Orioles on Sunday, but like each of his starts, made pitches when he had to. He tossed six innings, surrendering seven hits and four runs, including a Maikel Franco three-run shot in the sixth inning which cut the Sox’ lead at the time to 10-4. The offense certainly carried most of the load, but Pivetta’s stuff also played. He had a pivotal strikeout of Anthony Santander looking with the bases loaded in the third. Santander had fouled off seven pitches during the at-bat, but Pivetta froze him on a 1-2 fastball on the inner half of the plate. “He put together a good at-bat,” Pivetta said after the 14-9 win. “That’s a big at-bat at the time. It was just fun. It’s nice to be out there and compete.” A cross-up in that same frame between Pivetta and Christian Vázquez could have resulted in a run for the Orioles, but the ball didn’t go back far enough, enabling Vázquez to smother it. Pivetta then made the gutsy call to put his body in front of the plate, even with the speedy Freddy Galvis hustling down the line. Pivetta applied the tag, and pumped his fist after the out call got the Sox out of the jam. “I just tried to get my body in front of the plate and meet him there and get my legs in front so I could kind of block to plate the best I could with the ball,” Pivetta said. “Because I believe the rule is if the ball takes you into the plate, you can block it.” “That was an aggressive play,” manager Alex Cora said. “It was a big play at the moment.” Pivetta has a 3.27 ERA this season. Since being traded to the Red Sox at the end of last year, Pivetta hasn’t lost, compiling a 4-0 record in as many starts. Devers delivers Rafael Devers had himself a weekend. He hit a homer in each of the three games, with two coming on Sunday. He totaled six hits and 9 RBIs. Devers has the third-most extra-base hits by a Red Sox in their first 400 games at 189. The two in front of him are Ted Williams and Nomar Garciaparra, who are tied with 219. “Obviously, I made a couple changes here and there, but I still maintain the same approach as I do every single game and now things are falling in my favor,” said Devers, who raised his batting average to .250. “So it feels good to be able to be contributing as much as I am right now.” Devers began hitting the ball on the screws in the home series against the Tampa Bay Rays, compiling more productive at-bats. Cora knew it was only a matter of time before his third baseman went on a tear. “He feels really good about himself,” Cora said. “He hit some hard balls. There were some big walks against Tampa. When he starts walking and controlling the strike zone, good things are going to happen. And he loves hitting here.” Indeed he does, or at least that’s what the numbers say. Devers has eight career homers in 26 games at Camden Yards, the most out of any road ballpark he’s played in. “We play here a lot, so I guess that contributes to my success here as well,” Devers said. “But I’m just doing what I do best and just trying to not change too much and just stick to my game plan as I usually do.” Plenty of afternoon baseball The Red Sox will begin a four-game series against the Minnesota Twins on Monday. All four are scheduled day games, starting at 2:10 p.m. Monday-Wednesday and 1:10 p.m. Thursday. In the wake of a potential not-guilty verdict in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the first trial connected to last May’s death of George Floyd, Cora intimated that the Twins wanted to be as cautious as possible. “Not only do we have to be careful, but we have to be in tune with everything that is going on outside of our world,” Cora said. “So, we’ll be OK. We’re going over there to do a job and play four baseball games. Then we’ll be in the hotel and we hang in together” . J.D. Martinez has the second-most RBIs by a Red Sox in their first nine games of a season with 15 . Sunday was the 34th three-homer game in Red Sox history, and Martinez the 25th-different Red Sox to accomplish it. It was also the 31st time the Red Sox hit as many as six homers in a game .